asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if it is correct that Ireland voted at the United Nations recently to accept the credentials of South Africa and the reasons for this decision.
Written Answers. - UN Vote on South Africa.
32.
Ireland voted against the resolution approving the second report of the Assembly's Credentials Committee, at the recent resumed 33rd Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations, which met to consider the question of Namibia. The credentials committee had decided that a communication from the Minister for Foreign Affairs of South Africa did not constitute valid credentials for South Africa.
We voted against this recommendation of the credentials committee, because we believe that all member states of the United Nations, however much we deplore particular political systems, are entitled to participate in the proceedings of the General Assembly unless and until their membership rights are suspended in accordance with the proper procedures laid down by the UN Charter. Decisions on the credentials of delegations of member states are however a technical matter in the sense that the function of the credentials committee is to determine whether the credentials of a delegation are in proper order and have been validly issued by the appropriate authority of the Government concerned. A credentials committee, in our view, has no mandate to recommend a step which in effect suspends the membership rights of a member state; such a decision should only be taken in accordance with the explicit provisions of Articles 5 and 6 of the Charter. If we had agreed to its recommendation in this case, we would in effect have been acquiescing in a precedent which would endanger the rights of all member states and the efficacy of the United Nations organisation itself.
Neither this vote on credentials nor our abstention on the substantive resolution about Namibia at that resumed session, in any way constituted support for the policies of the South African Government in South Africa and Namibia or for the abhorrent system of apartheid about which Deputies can be in no doubt as to my views and strong feelings. We regularly express these views at meetings of the General Assembly where Ireland has consistently supported the efforts of the United Nations to enable the people of Namibia to exercise their right to self-determination and independence without delay and has long deplored the obstructive attitude of South Africa which has no legal rights in Namibia.
Our vote on the credentials issue was intended to promote the respect of UN procedures in the interest of all and the objective of universality of membership at the United Nations—a view which is shared by the great majority of European democracies including all of the other member states of the Community who voted in the same way as Ireland.
Our abstention on the substantive resolution on Namibia was due primarly to the fact that the text of a resolution which we could otherwise have supported included an expression of explicit support for armed struggle in Namibia and a related call on member states and other bodies to supply military assistance. In a statement to the General Assembly, the Irish delegate made this point and emphasised that in our view the efforts of the international community should be channelled through the United Nations so as to achieve peace and justice for the Namibian people with the minimum of suffering; a final effort should therefore be made to reach a negotiated settlement. He made it clear that we supported the general objectives of the resolution (which contained 20 paragraphs in all) and added that Ireland would support firm action by the Security Council if South Africa continued to maintain its intransigent position and denied any longer to the people of Namibia the self-determination and independence to which they were entitled in accordance with the decisions of the United Nations.